1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to communication systems; and more particularly to a call parking and paging system that provides call parking and paging functions for, or in conjunction with, a communication system.
2. Related Art
Many enterprises and businesses use private branch exchanges (PBXs) to service a large portion of their communication needs. Facilities within which PBXs are used include hospitals, office complexes, corporate offices, factories, warehouses, sports arenas, schools, universities and other facilities that have a relatively large number of telephone extensions but do not require dedicated connections to the public switched telephone network (PSTN) for each extension. In a typical PBX installation, the PBX couples to the PSTN and to a plurality of extensions. The PBX routes calls between the connected extensions and routes calls between the PSTN and the connected extensions. The PBX may also provide extended functions such as a call greeting system, directory assistance, voice mail and call parking and paging functions.
Local service providers may provide PBX-like functions to serviced enterprises and businesses using central office hardware. The local service provider typically delivers equivalent functionality to the business or entity without requiring dedicated hardware at the business or entity site. Such service is attractive to those businesses and entities that desire the functions but cannot justify the purchase of a PBX due to a relatively low usage level.
In many organizations, a single phone number serves as the main number for the organization and most calls are received on the main number. When the main number is dialed, the call is routed to an attendant or to a call greeting system which provides the caller with a set of options, allowing the caller to reach a particular extension or a particular department, for example. With respect to the latter, after the caller selects an option, the call is processed according to the option selected. Should the caller request a selected extension, the call is delivered to the selected extension. Should the selected extension fail to pick up the call, the call is then returned to an attendant, to voice mail or to another destination, depending upon selection by the caller and/or default operations.
Irrespective of how a call is initially routed or returned, most organizations have at least one option in which a call is routed or returned to an attendant, primarily for further action. Each attendant is typically allocated a plurality of extensions with which to service calls. In many organizations, even with a large number of extensions allocated to the attendant, the attendant's extensions often become overloaded. Thus, when a call passes to the attendant and the attendant's extensions are all in use, the caller receives a busy signal.
When call parking and paging functions are requested, an attendant must first receive the call and then initiate the call parking and paging functions. Upon receipt of the call, the attendant receives information from the caller, parks the call against one of his or her extensions and announces the call over a public address system. Upon hearing the announcement, the desired party then dials the extension against which the call has been parked and receives the parked call. While call parking aids in delivering calls to a desired party, each parked call consumes one of the attendants. Further, when the attendant is busy, call parking tasks may overload the attendant, causing the attendant to be delinquent in servicing other calls.
In many organizations, delivering parked calls to the correct party is of heightened importance. For example, when an organization requires that the identity of a caller only be revealed to the desired party, call parking systems may breach confidentiality requirements by allowing anyone to pick up the parked call.
Additional difficulties relate to delivering calls which have been parked. Oftentimes, the attendant does not know whether the desired party is within the boundaries of the served facility. If the desired party is not present, calls are parked that cannot be delivered and resources are needlessly consumed in attempting to deliver the parked call. In such case, the caller receives a poor impression of the organization since the attendant appears to have no knowledge of the presence of the desired party.
Thus, there is a need in the art for a call parking and paging system that does not overload existing resources, that provides automatic call parking and paging functions to reduce attendant loading, that efficiently pages intended recipients and that minimizes erroneous routing of parked calls.